I’ve bought brushes marketed as ‘Russian-made sables’ at different times and from different vendors. The actual manufacturer is obscure. Their only identifying marking is the distinctive logo, which you can see in the accompanying photo. In addition to the logo, the brushes have long, mahogany handles. They are excellent brushes for oil (I’ve never used…

Main Street #1, or ‘The Antique Shop,’ is on the easel in this photograph. I had a couple of good, long sessions on it today. I’m having fun painting the bric-a-brac in the shop window. Vermilion is a lake-front town (biggest concentration of small-boat marinas on the Great Lakes) and many shops have a nautical…

I wrote about oil brushes before and it’s a good topic to expand. This post is a companion to my Oil Paint Brand reference and, like that post, I’ll update this one as I get new material. When I started out, my sole criteria for buying brushes was price. Like most in my position, I told myself that it didn’t matter that I…

Main Street #2 is on the old easel in front of some unfinished paintings. One of the challenges (and pleasures) of Main Street #2 is the large number of figures in the space–14. Although the painting is largish, 40″ x 56,” the figures range from small scale to very small scale. Originally it had even more…

The Cleveland Museum of Art recently rotated its vast Asian collection, which I happily discovered during Friday’s visit. After a Caesar salad in the Atrium cafeteria–‘extra anchovies, please’–I started my weekly ramble in the galleries above the cafeteria where the Asian collection is housed. Major museums, like Cleveland, rotate parts of their collection all the…

Aside

I am working on a new oil brush reference that is a companion to my Oil Paint Brands reference. I will discuss the brushes I’m familiar with and rate them too. I’ll update it as I have new material.I thought it would be done last week but stuff happened.